UMAP IT Technical Information

UMAP IT (pronounced you-map-eye-tee) is a VBA add-on for Microsoft Word. The information on this page will help you understand what the software does and what we need for the software to work correctly in an enterprise environment.
How UMAP IT works

UMAP IT is a VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) add-on for Microsoft Word. The VBA lives in a Word macro-enabled template called UMAP IT vvv.dotm, where vvv is the version number.

After installation, UMAP IT adds a tab to the Word ribbon. The buttons on the tab provide users with the functionality to insert building blocks (sections of predefined, formatted text) into their document, making it easy for them to create documents that adhere to Usability Mapping principles.

Hardware and software requirements

UMAP IT runs inside Microsoft Word on a Windows operating system. Windows 7 or later is fine. Any relatively modern version of Office will work including Office 365.

The Mac version of Word is not supported, though Mac users can use Parallels to run Windows and Word.

What we need for UMAP IT to work

UMAP IT needs the following permissions to work:

  • Enable macros: UMAP IT is effectively a set of macros and therefore needs Word macros to run.
  • Save to Word Startup folder: During the installation process, UMAP IT will save itself to the Word Startup folder. In our experience, this is usually a trusted folder and does not cause any issues.
  • Write to the registry: UMAP IT will save certain settings (such as which colors to use) in the computer’s registry. These settings are saved to the VBA Program Settings section in the registry, and generally does not cause protection violation issues.
  • Callbacks to our license server: UMAP IT licenses are validated against our license server, once upon installation and then periodically after that. Your firewalls may have to configured to allow calls to these endpoints:
    ‍
              https://api.convertkit.com/v3/*

    or more specifically:
    ‍
            https://api.convertkit.com/v3/subscribers/*    
            https://api.convertkit.com/v3/tags/*

If you have any additional questions, please email us at support@usabilitymapping.com

How a user installs UMAP IT

UMAP IT is distributed as a single macro-enabled Word template. Typically, a user will

  • save the template to their desktop,
  • start Word, and
  • open the template from Word.

When UMAP IT detects that it has been opened, it will ask the user if he/she wants to install it. If they select yes, UMAP IT will save itself to the Word Startup folder. Word will then quit.

The next time the user starts Word, Word will load the template from the Word Startup folder and enable the UMAP IT tab in the ribbon.

For more information or help

Please drop us an email at umapit@usabilitymapping.com

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